Piper Aircraft delivers planes to FIT

The planes will be used as part of the Aviation Career Alliance between Piper Aircraft and the Florida Institute of Technology's College of Aeronautics.

In addition to the new fleet of Piper training aircrafts, the alliance incudes enhanced career opportunities for students and graduates through Piper Aircraft internships, scholarships, career interviews and mentoring.

"We are anxious to integrate these new Piper Archer TX's into our curriculum," said Kenneth Stackpoole, vice president of aviation programs and dean of the Florida Institute of Technology. "These new aircrafts will be put into use immediately, training our student pilots."

Piper Aircraft President and CEO Simon Caldecott said the new airplanes will help the university train hundreds of aviators just beginning their professional aviation careers.

"We are pleased that Florida Institute of Technology is our launch customer for the Piper Career Alliance, and today we are doubly gratified to hand over the keys of the first eight Archer TX trainers," Caldecott said.

The new Piper airplanes will be among the first Archer TX's equipped with the Garmin G1000 glass panel avionics, which makes flight information easier for students to scan and process. The interior of the plane is designed to withstand the rigors of flight training and factory-installed air conditioning adds to the Archer's appeal as a training aircraft.

In addition to the eight aircrafts delivered Monday, Florida Institute of Technology's College of Aeronautics has options on 16 additional trainers — either Archer TX's or twin-engine Seminoles — for future delivery, bringing the total potential new aircrafts under the agreement to 24. Similar agreements have also been reached for 15 training planes for Airline Transport Professionals and 35 training planes for CAE Oxford Aviation Academy.

The planes normally sell for more than $300,000 each. The market for planes used in the training of pilots is expected to grow as a result of a forecast demand for nearly 500,000 commercial pilots by 2018.